You have the right to remain silent. Forever.

Fortunately for us, those rules don’t apply to the psycho with a badge, because that menacing bastard is coming back in the form of prequel and he’s bringing some serious firepower this time around. In an exclusive interview with both William Lustig and Larry Cohen, DG has learned that Nicolas Winding Refn (DRIVE) is going to be joining Lustig as a producer of the new film.

“It’s going to be more a prequel than anything else, I am really excited to come back to this world especially since Nick is going to be a part of it” said Cohen. “Nick (Winding Refn) has been talking to us about it for a while now and I had an idea that would work so we’re going to do it.” Cohen said that the film will still maintain the noir-ish comic book feel of the first three films but “with a bigger budget than the others have had.”

Lustig cautioned that “the project isn’t 100% signed off on but it’s pretty close.” It is unclear who will be taking over the director’s chair but we have three options and all of them look good for the dormant franchise:

Option 1: These films have inspired a huge cult-following that is even bigger in Asia than it is here. With such a huge foot-print it’s not going to be difficult to find an exciting director to pick this up… which of course leads us to option 2.

Option 2: Nicolas Winding Refn! After using a little clip from Lustig’s VIGILANTE in DRIVE, it would be cool as hell to see this guy jump behind the wheel and direct this bad boy himself.

Option 3: Nobody knows this series better than Larry Cohen and William Lustig. Lustig hasn’t directed since 1996, Cohen hasn’t been behind the camera since 2006, it would be great to see one of those guys get back into the game. Personally, I think Cohen is more comfortable with a pen these days, but I would be surprised if Lustig hasn’t kicked around the idea of doing this himself.

Either way you slice it it’s triple 7s, Bastards. One of the best franchises in genre filmmaking is coming back to life. Dig it! We’ll let you know more skinny as it comes in.